Tag Archives: shibori

Yes – the ancient (and much revered) Japanese art of Shibori – tying and dyeing silk to create wonderful effects.
And with modern silk paints, vibrant colours with just an iron to fix. great for home experimenting, and a pleasure to teach in an art class environment.

But what actually does Shibori silk painting involve?

A quick Google or visit to Wikipedia reveals that Shibori is not only an ancient art but a complex one too. In the West, one technique seems to have become used more than the many others – using thread to tie silk around formers before applyimg the silk paint.

In our Shibori classes we explore four techniques that will give you distintively different end results.
We’ll give you 4 silk panels – one for each of the core methods.
The aim is to identify the technique to be used to make an end product – for a beginner’s Shibori class that’s a pleasingly soft silk scarf, using a silk often referred to as Pongee – light and delicate.
Choose the effect you like most and use that for your final silk scarf.

We also use modern iron-fix dyes; the alternative is steam fixing. We suspect the steam fix dyes available might give a more saturated colour, but our aim for this beginner’s class is for you to take your silk scarf home on the day. We’ll just use a household iron to fix the dyes and your scarf is ready to show off!

Let’s have a look at the four techniques you’ll try on our beginner’s class:

First up, try this method – tie the silk around a series of round objects and then apply silk dye (as many different colours as you like) to parts of the silk before drying it and ironing it.

Technique number two involves wrapping the silk tightly around a former and applying dyes, as demonstrated by Jenny:

And now, technique 4 – tieing the silk around beads and dyeing. As demonstrated by Jenny again! Fiddly, but a very nice effect so worth the bother:

On our class, testing each of these techniques takes the morning.
Of course we include lunch in our class – to keep you fully nourished and attentive!
Then in the afternoon, it’s time to use your chosen method to make your scarf.
We provide a range of dye colours, and show you how to mix colours to creat your own custom colours!

Fancy having a go at making your own Shibori-dyed silk scarf?
Our website page is here:
http://www.vitreus-art.co.uk/classes/silk-painting.html

As with all our one-day beginners classes, lunch, materials and fun are all included.
We look forward to meeting you at our gallery!